Forensicare’s submission to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System

As the only agency in Victoria that provides clinical mental health services spanning across all components of the mental health and criminal justice sectors, we have a unique perspective to share.

The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System aims to provide a clear set of actions that will change Victoria’s mental health system, enabling consumers to live their best lives with recovery-focused support.

Forensicare’s submission

Forensicare has made a formal submission to the Royal Commission. We highlight the challenges faced by our consumers, families and carers, our workforce, and the broader community, whilst suggesting ways to address these challenges.  We want to thank our consumers, carers and staff for their valuable contribution to this submission, and encourage ongoing engagement in the Royal Commission.

Central to our submission is the aim to prevent people with a mental illness from becoming involved in the criminal justice system.  We also want to ensure that mental health consumers who do end up in the system are treated with dignity, and have access to high-quality mental health treatment and care.

To do this, Victoria’s mental health system needs to:

• deliver humane, recovery and consumer-focused mental health care to all forensic consumers
• promote a whole-of-system approach that supports forensic consumers with multiple and complex needs across all stages of their recovery
• invest in prevention and early intervention to decrease demand for forensic mental health services
• recognise personal and lived experience and address consumer mental health and offending issues
• ensure the safety of consumers and the broader community

You can view our full submission here.

More information

To stay up to date with the latest news on the commission, you can register here or visit their website.